My Favorite Family Side Dishes for a Soulful Thanksgiving Dinner

Thanksgiving is about food and family. Family members, who haven’t seen each other all year, gather for a meal that stirs up happy memories and time honored meal traditions. This article will highlight a few of the side dishes that have become mainstays in my home during Thanksgiving dinner. Even when the originator of the recipes is no longer with us or can't be physically present for the meal, these savory side dishes remind us of them. As with a lot of things passed down from generation to generation, recipes were given by word of mouth and measurements were not always exact. The addition of ingredients was more a matter of instinct or “feel” than an exact science. My mother helped me to come up with an estimation of the amounts based on my grandmother’s recollection.

Oyster Fritters
My grandmother always made this dish at Thanksgiving especially for her husband. When he died, she continued to make the dish. Now, my stepfather can’t get enough of them!

Ingredients:
1 pint of raw oysters
Complete pancake mix (requires water only)
Vegetable oil
Milk
¼ tsp. Soul food seasoning

1. Mix the Complete pancake mix using milk instead of water for a thicker batter. Follow the instructions to make ten to twelve pancakes. 

2. Pour the oysters in a bowl. Take two knives and crosscut the oysters into smaller pieces. 

3. Pour the oysters into the prepared pancake batter. Add soul food seasoning. 

4. Heat one tablespoon of oil in a 10” skillet. Drop round spoonfuls (no more than two tablespoons per fritter) of batter into the skillet. Fry until golden brown on both sides. Drain on a paper towel. Makes about 20-24 fritters.


Pork Yok
When I was younger, I thought that my grandmother was saying “yak”. The kids assumed that we were going to eat something made from that funny looking animal that reminded me of a kind of buffalo. It sounded funny, but it tasted delicious.